So you want to be a lion?

Predators. I like to watch the Planet Earth series produced by the BBC. The stories, photography, and economical narration by David Attenborough are wonderful. The music composed by George Fenton is perfect. Episodes on predators are fascinating.

So you want to be a lion? Powerful, fast, feared, easy life, high protein diet - a top predator. Think again.

One thing I’ve learned is how careful predators must be with their physical plant, i.e. their bodies. Any injury befalling them, such as a broken paw, sprained leg, or a gore wound, not only loses them their prey, but ultimately kills them by starvation. They have no doctors and even no friends among their kind. Each is an independent agent living a risky life and trying to survive until, finally overtaken by age, it dies by weakness or starvation. It is a certainty that many lose senses of smell, vision, hearing, or even develop dental problems - also fatal. No medical plans or nursing homes for these guys.

Examples. Female lions, for example, live about eleven years, and males about seven years. Leopards live 12-17 years, Cheetahs live 10-12 years, Tigers about 12 years. (All live longer in captivity.) This indicates these animals need to be in top form to survive. Giraffes, a veggie type, live about 25 years. Elephants live even longer. Gazelle’s and elks, the prey, live about eleven years, also indicating the need for top form. The wildebeest hangs on for twenty years. Just a thorn in the hoof will slow it down just enough for death to overtake. A top predator in Africa, the crocodile, lives over seventy years, but has only an occasional bursts of high metabolism – once they get through their first year or so. For all, predator and prey alike, the first year is critical – the little ones being easy targets.

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